As technology advances, the need for reliable, high-speed cellular networks becomes increasingly critical. With the advent of emerging applications like IoT, autonomous vehicles, and virtual reality, service assurance has become essential to ensure the success of these complex use cases. Service assurance refers to the ability to monitor network performance, identify anomalies, and take corrective actions. In this article, we will explore the importance of service assurance in cellular networks, the role of orchestration and automation, Zero Touch Network and Service Management, SLA parameters, closed-loop service assurance, and the need to set up a proper service assurance infrastructure.
Importance of Service Assurance in Cellular Networks
A critical factor for the success of emerging applications, service assurance ensures that customers receive reliable and high-quality services in real-time. Complete visibility into the network and automated recovery in case of customer-impacting issues is essential to meet customers’ demanding expectations and achieve the desired monetization from a service provider’s point of view. Moreover, private LTE/5G networks typically have stringent service assurance requirements, necessitating a high degree of monitoring and control.
The role of orchestration and automation in service assurance
Orchestration and automation play a crucial role in service assurance. Automating network operations and service assurance procedures can help ensure the network meets the required service levels. Automated workflows and closed-loop automation frameworks make service assurance more efficient and accurate.
Zero-touch network and service management
Standardization bodies are working towards defining the requirements and procedures for Zero Touch Network and Service Management. A Zero Touch Network is a network that requires little or no human intervention to operate optimally. It involves automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in various aspects of network management, including service assurance. The automation systems orchestrate the network operations automatically, and the system is capable of self-healing, self-optimization, and self-configuration.
The definition of Service Assurance in Telecommunications refers to the set of activities and practices that are employed in order to ensure that communication services provided to customers are executed in a reliable and consistent manner, meet the required quality standards, and are continuously monitored and optimized to minimize service disruptions and faults. Service Assurance also involves providing end-to-end visibility and control of all network components and applications, identifying and resolving issues promptly, and ensuring that customer satisfaction is maintained to the highest possible level.
Service assurance refers to the ability to monitor a network’s performance, identify anomalies, and report them or take corrective actions. In telecommunications, service assurance is a critical component of the network planning and management process. With increasingly complex network architectures and new application demands, service assurance has become even more essential in ensuring customer satisfaction.
Defining SLA Parameters
The parameters of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) need to be defined in terms of measurable metrics/KPIs that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For instance, the network reliability score, network availability score, and throughput statistics can all be considered as measurable metrics/KPIs for ensuring cellular service assurance.
Closed-loop service assurance
Closed-loop service assurance is a comprehensive approach that encompasses everything from network monitoring to optimization and insights from the RAN (Radio Access Network) to the Core. For closed-loop service assurance, we need both a powerful NWDAF (Network Data Analytics Function) and a containerized service assurance solution. NWDAF provides data analytics and Machine Learning/Optimization capabilities, while the containerized service assurance solution provides network monitoring, optimization, and insights from the RAN to the Core. With closed-loop automation frameworks based on advanced AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) techniques, we can achieve a completely ZERO-TOUCH NETWORK.
In conclusion, we can say that setting up the proper service assurance infrastructure for measurable KPIs and frameworks to monitor them and take preventive and corrective actions is the real key to success in cellular networks. Service assurance is essential to emerging applications like IoT, autonomous vehicles, and virtual reality, providing customers with reliable and high-quality services in real-time. With the advent of new technological advancements, service assurance is becoming even more critical in ensuring customer satisfaction and achieving service monetization. By leveraging advanced automation and orchestration techniques along with intelligent AI/ML algorithms, we can achieve a completely autonomous Zero Touch Network that requires little or no human intervention to operate optimally.